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Andrew Balas was born in Budapest as the third child of Balás Gábor, an attorney, journal editor and historian. After having finished the secondary school Piarista Gimnázium (Budapest), he studied general medicine at Semmelweis University where he graduated MD in 1977, ranked first in the medical school class. He started working as a research faculty member in the Computing Center at Semmelweis University. Simultaneously he enrolled in the mathematics program of Eötvös Loránd University. Among his professors were Paul Erdős and László Babai. He graduated with an MS in Applied Mathematics in 1983.

In 1984 he worked for the Registry of the European Dialysis and Transplant Association (London, UK). After returning to Budapest he worked as associate director of the Institute of Health Care Organization, Planning and Informatics for 4 years. In 1988 he moved to the United States. Working as a research fellow at Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City, he enrolled in the medical informatics PhD program of the University of Utah and graduated in 1991.

His expertise includes development of priorities for innovative research responsive to societal needs, performance measurement of university technology transfer, and application of advanced digital technologies for translating biomedical research to practice. Among others, Andrew Balas is the lead author of the landmark study on the transfer of research evidence from clinical trials to patient care.[1] The widely cited study estimated that it would take an average of 17 years to put new scientific evidence into practice.

Andrew Balas has been effective in taking on the status quo, achieving breakthrough performance improvements and fighting for better public access to scientific discoveries. Most of his scholarly activities have been focused on digital knowledge management for health care improvement. His studies about delay and waste in the transfer of research results to health care are often cited as reference points in translational research initiatives.